Charlottesville Grapples With Issue Of Black-on-white Crime

Teens' Attacks On Students Draw Debate From Many Sides

February 28, 2002|By The Washington Post

CHARLOTTESVILLE — It's hard to say what was more disturbing to the citizens of this bucolic college town when a group of teen-agers was arrested in a series of sometimes-brutal assaults on students at the University of Virginia.

It was bad enough that the accused were 10 local high school students who police believe beat up college students on six occasions just for the thrill of it.

But when a police investigator announced that three of the suspects said they had chosen targets because they looked different, residents reeled, contemplating how run-of-the-mill, town-and-gown friction could turn so ugly. The suspects are black, and the victims are white or Asian.

Once the race issue was out in the open, the police chief hurried to say that the investigation was continuing, that more students could be charged as accessories and that it was premature to assign motive.

But the attacks already have aroused passion throughout the city, known for its tolerance, liberalism and the dominance of the university founded by Thomas Jefferson. With four out of 10 city residents attending the school, and many more working there, the arrests of black teen-agers charged with assaulting mostly white college students has generated an intense debate over racial issues and the definition of hate crimes.

A white-rights group called European-American Unity and Rights Organization, headed by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, is publicizing the case nationwide and demanding that the African-American teen-agers be prosecuted for hate crimes against whites.

With EURO threatening to demonstrate on the steps of City Hall, officials are striving to keep the incident a local matter. They play down calls to treat it as a hate crime. They say the people who have called or written e- mails criticizing the city's handling of the case have used vulgar language and don't understand the law or the nature of what happened, much less the city's torn emotions.

"Race and everything else aside, these are our kids, on both sides -- victims and suspects," said Police Chief Tim Longo, who has received vituperative letters about the case challenging everything from his manhood to his moral courage. "We need to talk about why this happened and what we can do as a community to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Until a police investigator mentioned that race may have been a factor, there was no hint of anything more than a rash of simple assaults. The first incident was in September, but most of the attacks occurred in December and January, police say. The assaults were centered around Rugby Road, a lane abutting campus and home to many sororities and fraternities. The victims were male and female.

In all, 10 people were injured in six incidents that occurred between early evening and late at night, police say. In each assault, the victims told police they had been kicked and punched by a group of at least three African-American youths. A robbery occurred in at least one instance. Police said the victims suffered a range of injuries; several were as minor as scrapes on the face, but one suffered a concussion and another had broken cheekbones that necessitated surgery.

Nine of the 10 high school students arrested early this month are minors. One, however, turned 18 just days before the latest attack and is being prosecuted as an adult. The charges include misdemeanor assault and felony assault by mob.

Under Virginia law, when race is a motivating factor for some misdemeanors, charges can be upgraded to felonies with a punishment of five years in prison. Several of the suspects already are charged with felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

EURO contends that hate-crime prosecutions are applied unfairly, used only when the victim is a minority.

"It's one-sided," said Vincent Breeding, national director of EURO. "There are no whites who are victims whose assailants are being prosecuted. If we're going to have a tolerance of diversity in society, it can't be a one-way street."

Ron Doggett, head of the Virginia chapter of EURO, said he has asked almost 10,000 people on his nationwide mailing list to pressure city officials to invoke the hate-crime provision. He also asked the U.S. Justice Department to intervene, but FBI spokesman Lawrence Barry said agents are convinced police are investigating appropriately.

Alvin Edwards, a former Charlottesville mayor and pastor who has three of the suspects in his congregation at Mount Zion Baptist Church, believes class, not race, lies at the root of the assaults. He said many local teen-agers, particularly African-Americans, resent the university because they consider it largely inaccessible to them. He also doubts race was involved because two students in the clique, who were questioned and released without charges, are white girls.

"How can it be an attack on whites when whites are involved?" he asked.